Provenance: Acquired by Empress Eugénie [1826-1920] by spring 1867,[1] and possibly placed at the Palais des Tuileries, Paris, with the Carpeaux, Neapolitan Fisherboy [NGA 1943.4.89]; taken by the imperial family as private property to their first residence in exile in England, Chislehurst, probably by summer 1871; bequeathed by Eugénie, as part of the family estate at her final English residence, The Hall, Farnborough (Hampshire), to her nephew Prince Napoléon Victor Jérôme Bonaparte [1862-1926]; sold privately before the estate sales of July 1927 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris); (Duveen Galleries, New York, by January 1941);[2] sold 1941 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York; placed on loan March 1941 to the National Gallery of Art;[3] gift 1943 to NGA.
[1] Catalogue, Salon of 1867, no. 2165: "Appartient à S. M. l'Impératrice."
[2] "A Farnborough ont été photographiés par le comte [illegible in original document] chez l'Impératrice Eugénie les deux groupes en marbre du pêcheur et de la Jeune fille de la coquille. Ces groupes n'ont pas figuré à la vente de l'Impératrice, ni à Londres les 1er ou 7 Juillet 1927 ni à Farnborough les 18-27 Juillet 1927. (Le marbre avec son pendant ayant été à Farnborough, ont été achetés à l'amiable par Duveen.)" Registre [Elie Fabius], Archives, Fabius Frères, Paris. Pierre Fabius made available this unpublished reference. See also Royal Cortissoz, "Certain Figures in French Sculpture", New York Herald Tribune, 5 January 1941: VI:8. This article was also reprinted as a small book, with black and white illustrations of the sculptures, that served as a catalogue for the exhibition at Duveen Galleries (privately printed by the William Bradford Press, New York, 1941).
[3] In NGA registrarial files.